Family sickened by home's meth lab past

Jonathan Hankins and his family were thrilled after they purchased a foreclosed home in Klamath Falls, Ore. - until they said the home started making them sick.

Hankins, his wife Beth and 2-year-old son Ezra started developing extreme dry mouth and other out-of-the-ordinary symptoms like headaches and respiratory issues. According to neighbors, the previous inhabitants had operated a methamphetamine lab.

The family created a petition to get a refund from seller Freddie Mac for the home's cost, and calls for the company to implement widespread testing of all homes it sells.

meth lab, meth house, hankins — Jonathan Hankins

The family moved into the home the third week of June 2012. Within days, Jonathan began experiencing severe dry mouth unlike he'd ever had before and his wife Beth also developed dry mouth and sores.

Two-year-old Ezra was also acting strange and would say he was very thirsty, but would refuse drinking water because it burned his mouth.

The image provided by the Hankins family shows the exterior of the home they purchased.

Despite renovating the house by repainting the walls and sanding the floors, tests revealed significantly high levels of methamphetamine residue.

"I was naive enough to the point that if it had been a meth house, it had been cleaned appropriately," Beth Hankins told CBSNews.com.

The Hankins started a petition on change.org which asked Freddie Mac to pay for costs from purchasing the home -- including furniture they will have to throw out -- and costs for decontamination. The family also calls on Freddie Mac to implement widespread testing of its homes for meth residue. The petition has nearly 200,000 signatures.

A spokesperson for Freddie Mac told CBSNews.com that the company is empathetic to the family's plight, and if it had known the house was used for cooking meth, it would have disclosed the information. The company said the buyers could have ordered an inspection or conducted tests on the property prior to purchasing.

This image shows the interior of the Hankins home before they moved out due to symptoms family members began experiencing.

This image shows 2-year-old Ezra in the family's home in Klamath Falls, Oregon. When Ezra first started acting strange, his parents were unsure if he was just uncomfortable from the move or sick.

"With foreclosure prices, we thought that would be a good way to go," Jonathan Hankins said of buying a "fixer-upper."

The family decided to move into Beth's parents' house after two-year-old Ezra could not drink water because it hurt him too much.

This image provided from the Hankins family shows the interior of the home which the family later discovered was used as a methamphetamine lab.

"Because of the growing number of foreclosures and meth production, it is not going away," Jonathan Hankins said. "It is like Russian Roulette to home buyers."